Gordon Strachan undaunted by Scotland Germany tie

Scotland boss lauds character of squad. Picture: SNS

The real, proper, serious work began for Gordon Strachan yesterday, but in the improbable surroundings of a car showroom he couldn’t resist one more joke.

Specifically, this was a small office just off the sparkling forecourt, a slightly unnerving place where people like you and me often have to come for help to make our dreams come true. “So you need some finance?” the Scotland manager said, peering over the borrowed desk. “Let me get a bit of background on you and we’ll see what we can do … ”

With respect, the names of the salesmen on the whiteboard behind him were of no interest to Strachan. He was preoccupied with his just-announced 26-man squad running from back-from-oblivion Craig Gordon to Steven Naismith, in zippy scoring form for his club. Not a new motor, but Strachan was still selling a dream: qualification for a major tournament for the first time since 1998. To be in France in two years’ time, Scotland will have to do what’s usually required of them in the Euros: achieve a famous result against the reigning world champions.

But if the wee man is daunted by the task – or the fact all his good results to date have come in lost-cause games and friendlies – then he isn’t showing it. Was the Dortmund showdown affecting his sleep? “No, I’ve got plenty things to keep me awake.” Did he worry that, if the match on 7 September went especially badly, Scotland could end up conceding seven like Brazil? “No.”

Strachan was in ebullient form as he evoked the spirit of Glasgow 2014 – the Commonwealth Games – and Mexico 1986. What did he remember of his goal against West Germany at that World Cup? “I think it was Roy Aitken who gave me the pass and that surprised me.”

And what of his celebration, when he looked to be trying to vault a wall to somewhere interesting, possibly glamorous, only to remember he was wearing ridiculous beach-shorts?

“There was a bit of a trend for jumping over hoardings at that World Cup. I stopped because I wasn’t sure what was over the other side. But the best moment about that goal was running back to the halfway line. That was when I realised: my dad’s in the golf club in Edinburgh, jumping about with his mates.”

Strachan didn’t dwell on his achievements. It’s not about him anymore, and he has every confidence in his players for the daunting task ahead. “I’ve not got a problem with the character of these guys.”

Character. The manager used the word many times. It was as important to a footballer as skill. Scottish Commonwealth Games stars like boxer Charlie Flynn demonstrated it. And so in their own way already had his uncapped players, Callum McGregor and Kevin McDonald.

“We closet kids nowadays. They play under-21 games at their training grounds. The coach isn’t allowed to raise his voice to them. When they get beat nobody says boo. In life you’ve got to be tested, really tested, and if that doesn’t happen when you’re young you’ll never be able to handle what comes later.”

McGregor, he said, had been proactive about his career last season by going on loan in England. “He could have walked about Glasgow saying: ‘I’m a Celtic player.’ But no he said: ‘I’m going to Notts County to learn the game.’ He was playing with guys who had to win to get a bonus to make a difference to their lives. That wee boxer guy [Flynn] – he’s reality. He’d been beaten a couple of times but when it came to the crunch his character showed through.”

Character-building, for sure. And McDonald, now at Wolves, had shown character to come back from “one or two ups and downs”. Strachan liked how he was always seeking to pass the ball forward, not sideways.

Character was all over the squad, from Alan Hutton, back in the Aston Villa team after much roaming to Darren Fletcher, newly installed as vice-captain at Manchester United.

“But I’m not going to put pressure on anyone by saying they’ll be our key player. I hope this is going to be a good group with a team way about us.”

How many characterful Scottish footballers could you fit in the kind of family saloon for sale at Gordon Strachan’s garage? As many as possible will be needed but Scotland seem to be travelling in the right direction.

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

The Scotsman provides news, events and sport features from the Edinburgh area. For the best up to date information relating to Edinburgh and the surrounding areas visit us at The Scotsman regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website The Scotsman requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.